Apex Legends could get gladiatorial ‘survival’ and player-stealing ‘recruit’ game modes

Apex Legends
Image credit: EA

Intrepid data miners have once again been rifling through the files of Apex Legends to try to find clues of what might be coming next in the game, and it turns out that we could potentially see a new survival mode or a recruit mode, along with a kill camera feature, plus a couple of new playable characters (the eponymous Legends).

As spotted by @RealApexLeaks, there’s a reference to a ‘survival mode’ in the game’s files, although there are no details as to exactly what this may be. The only hint is that it involves a host NPC (non-player character), and possibly spectator NPCs, who could cheer players on, or sling emotes at them, giving the atmosphere more of a gladiatorial game show feel, presumably.

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Naturally, this battle royale shooter is about survival anyway, so a ‘survival’ mode is a slightly puzzling concept in that respect. Perhaps it could be a PvE mode where squads face down waves of AI-controlled enemies?

All this is pure guesswork, of course, and these references in the Apex Legends files may simply pertain to features that were tested during development, and have since been abandoned (but lax coders haven’t tidied up configuration files as they should have done).

Recruitment drive

Another snippet uncovered by the same source is a ‘recruit mode’, which would suggest a game mode where any downed player you revive joins your team. That could put a very different spin on Apex Legends, as successful teams get bigger and bigger, with the last squad alive winning.

The potential kill camera is an interesting one, too, which would essentially offer a replay of how you died. That would be nice to see on some occasions, particularly in a hectic skirmish, where you’re not actually clear on exactly how you perished.

Then there are leaks pointing to a pair of new heroes: Octane and Wattson. The former apparently has some sort of stim injection as an ability, which would obviously power-up some aspect of the character – perhaps movement speed, or maybe that and melee damage, a combination which could make for some fun in a smoke cloud.

Wattson will seemingly be able to lay down a Tesla Trap, and will doubtless be themed around electricity given the ‘watt’ in his or her name. While again this is speculation, it’s clear that Respawn will want to introduce a couple of new Legends to the game fairly soon, to keep interest piqued.

We’ve already seen data-mined info which suggests EA’s battle royale shooter could get new game modes for duo squads and solo players, which number among the most requested features for Apex Legends – although there are definitely arguments for and against. Currently, the game is based on a three player squad, and very much focused on teamwork in that trio.

Via VG247

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).